Children of Montmartre + The Love of a Woman

WORK V. LOVE Our evening double bill showcases stories that highlight the tricky path that women continue to walk regarding the trade-off between maternity and independence. We skip back to the 30s to show how French filmmakers were already conscious of this issue, and then move forward to the fraught mid-50s, when director Jean Gremillon’s advocacy for women’s independence produced a superb film that, ironically enough, brought his career to a standstill…

Children of Montmartre / La Maternelle

4:45 PM When the documentary team of Marie Epstein and Jean Benoît-Lévy adapted a novel (a suddenly dispossessed heiress finds work and fulfillment in a slum childcare center), their use of location shooting and non-professional child actors was to be expected—and is fascinating for us to see today. More remarkable—in fact, unforgettable—is the poetic sensitivity of their view through a child’s eyes (the extraordinary presence of young Paulette Elambert as the troubled little girl). (1933, dir. Jean Benoît-Lévy, Marie Epstein, 83m)

The Love of a Woman / L’amour d’une femme

We honor the recent passing of Micheline Presle (1922-2024) with one of her greatest performances as a doctor trying to win over the people of a remote island to accept her as their caregiver. Complicating things is a burgeoning love affair with the perfect man (Massimo Girotti), whose lone flaw is that he wants a stay-at-home wife. Brilliant, sensitive direction from Jean Gremillon, making what proved to be his final film. (1953, dir. Jean Grémillon, 104m)